Antony (Dragonball Xenoverse 2)
"I am you... at least - as you should be. You may think of me as merely... Tony Perfected" Summary "Antony" (or Anti-Tony) is the name given to an antagonistic alternate version of Tony, and is a Major antagonist in the Xenoverse 2 series, and personal nemesis to Tony. Little is known about his goals or origins, though he has shown himself to be hostile to Tony, going so far as attempting to kill him, and somehow allied with the evil Multiversal entity, Goma. Personality Antony displays a general contempt for Tony, viewing him as a narcissistic, egotistical, half-wit - something which gets under his skin more so by the fact they are - barring the last several years of their history - the same person. By extension, he views Tony's friends, namely Max Stone and Iced, with similar contempt, calling them Tony's "sycophantic followers". He can be amicable when he chooses to be, conversing with Tony for some time before turning on him. During the conversation he showed an interest in Tony's "God" transformation (a description which Antony seemed to find distasteful, calling it "naive to claim godhood from such a form"). Whether Antony has a similar transformation is unknown at this time, though it is implied that he currently does not, upon viewing God form for the first time, commenting that he had "hoped for the chance to witness first hand my own potential". Antony is described as "a pretentious pain-in-the-ass" by Tony, which he arguably lives up to, fully embracing the villainous trope of long monologues, and a self-righteous attitude. His exact motives remain unknown but he is a shady Bitch. Strength and Abilities He is shown to be incredibly and perhaps supernaturally powerful, taking on "God" Tony and Golden Iced without taking a hit (even managing to "knock" Tony out of God form, from which he was unable to ever recover). Despite this, he does posses limits to his power; jealously lacking the "God" transformation that Tony managed to achieve, fearing his own elimination through tampering by others with his history, and admitting to Iced that he cannot destroy a Universe in its entirety - which he had been previously accused of doing against Tony's timeline of "Universe" 13. Conception and Design The concept of an "evil Tony" was discussed behind the scenes since Xenoverse 1, originally as a would-be comical one-off scenario. The idea was shelved however until the announcement of Xenoverse 2, in which the character was revived to fill the dual purpose of providing a personal opponent to Tony, and to rectify the in-game story contradiction in that the "Hero of TokiToki City" (the player character from the first game i.e Tony) would return as a character, working for the Time Patrol, while the series established that Tony had left the patrol to return to his home universe. To properly fill this role, the physical design of Antony had to be identical to Tony (early ideas involved different head/horn types, inverted colour schemes, and even different sunglasses). Subtle changes were included however, a thinner frame, darker skin/armour tone, loss of lipstick, so that retrospectively (once his true identity had been revealed) viewers could look back and notice that these alterations were included from the start. Biography According to Antony himself, his history is shared with that of the Tony of the Time Patrol, at least up until some divergent point in their respective histories. Antony, known simply as Tony at the time, grew up within the Cold Empire, led by it's Emperor; King Cold, his sons, and the extended Cold family. As a nephew to King Cold, Tony had a degree of influence, governing a portion of the Universe and given free reign to expand to and conquer worlds within this region. When Frieza began a purge of rival members of his race in Age 737 - to root out a mysterious "Golden fighter" who attacked him during his battle with the Saiyan Bardock (this fighter being "God" form Tony from the Future on a routine Time Patrol mission) - Tony went into exile, eventually battling Frieza a few years later following correspondence with his friend Iced from inside the Empire. Although Tony was supposed to lose this battle; as witnessed in the 'History of Tony' episode, it was the involvement by Goma who caused a time split from which an alternate timeline ("Universe 13") was created, where Tony was able to kill Frieza and assume control over the Empire himself. Tony would later be forcibly "recruited" into the Time Patrol of the original timeline by Trunks, causing him to mysteriously vanish from his Universe, and prompt his friend Iced to search for him (which in turn lead him to the Patrol). However it can be assumed that as a technical time alteration, this action created a split in affected the timeline - resulting in two possible realities for the Universe; one with a Tony present, and one without. For an unknown length of time after this split, the Tony of the timeline in which he continued to exist in Universe 13 diverged greatly from the Tony who was serving in the Patrol to combat the Demon God Demigra. This alternate Tony (hereby referred to as Antony) eventually came into contact with unknown "allies" who allowed him to, like Tony, traverse the multiverse. Antony had developed a particular way of thinking which led attempt to erase Tony from the multiverse - making him the only version of himself in any reality. This assassination attempt led to, or coincided with the destruction of the entire timeline in which Tony ruled, referred to as Universe 13 (although Antony would confide to Iced in a later encounter that he did not have the ability to erase an entire Universe, and that "only certain specific beings" had that power). After believing Tony to be out of the picture, Antony infiltrated the New Time Patrol, in Conton City, masquerading as Tony. Through pretending to be their friend, he found out that Iced and Max had collected the 7 Dragon Balls and had one wish still available (having attempted to summon Tony from Universe 13, and discovering that it no longer existed). Antony took this wish for himself to provide him with a "Time Ring", before departing Conton having had his true identity revealed with the appearance of the dishevelled, but alive "real" Tony. With his existence assured by the Time Ring - a ring usually only available to Supreme Kais of the 12 Universes, which allows them to temporarily make return trips forward in time, but also prevents the wearers history from affecting their present (e.g killing off their past self will have no affect on their future) - Antony was willing to bide his time and train him self with hopes of unlocking the "God" transformation that Tony demonstrated to him during their previous battle. Antony appeared once again, this time before Iced alone, as Iced attempted to save Max Stone from absorption by Imperfect Cell. During this encounter he attempted to persuade his old friend that he was a direct continuation of the same person he called friend in a previous timeline (from Antony's perspective this was true) and after becoming aware of Iced's recently revealed Golden form transformation, hoped that he would join him. Iced refused and was all but beaten in the ensuing confrontation, though Antony sparred him, hoping to give him time to consider his request, before teleporting away once again. He remained quiet for a time, while Iced would attempt to follow his trail and decipher all information he had on him. Sometime later, Iced "borrowed" a Time Machine from the Patrol in order to follow up on a lead. Before disappearing, he compiled all the data he had on Antony within a scouter device, to pass on to Max Stone in the event Iced never returned. While promising to be back soon, Iced was gone for several weeks at least. During his attempt to follow Antony's trail, he arrived in the vacuous remains of an entirely different Universe, U9, realising that this reality had been entirely wiped out, and assuming this the work of Antony. During this time he was harassed by a Time Ranger (a sibling organisation to the Time Patrol, working out of Universe 11) who attempted to arrest Iced at this "crime scene", only letting him go when he revealed himself as a Time Patroller, and after the real culprit. Antony seemingly continued to lay low for some time, only being seen briefly at the end of episode #25 in a meditative state in some unknown location, just as the 1st Multiversal All-Time Tournament was announced by the Kais of Time). He finally showed himself for the first time in months at the Finale of the tournament, arriving on the scene just as Tony prepared to do battle against a "Mr. Goa" from Universe 10 - who at this same moment revealed himself to be Goma; the pair seemingly working together. Trivia * The idea of "Antony the Anti-Tony" was first discussed during the final episodes of Xenoverse 1, even going so far as creating the character in-game. However the announcement of Xenoverse 2 and wrapping up of the Xenoverse 1 episodes delayed the execution of this concept, and allowed for further story development. * The reveal of "Black Goku" in Dragonball Super was a major influence for the eventual design and character of Antony, though the concept was discussed before hand * A surprising number of viewers picked up on the subtle physical differences between character and Tony from his initial appearance at the end of episode 3. Comments such as "WHERE'S TONY'S LIPSTICK?" were common, leading a few to predict the character on screen was not the true Tony. * Though his inception and design was finalised long before Dragon Ball Super's "Universal Survival" story Arc, it is an interesting coincidence that Antony's Silver/Platinum eyes bear a resemblance to Goku's when fighting with "Ultra Instinct". Category:Dragon Ball Xenoverse Characters Category:Antagonists Category:Dragonball Xenoverse Frost Demons Category:Universe 7 Inhabitants